Where the Rainbow Ends

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: Currier is to be commended for attempting to write a literary chronicle of the life of gay men during the AIDS crisis. Unfortunately, he falls headlong into the stereotype of the Urban Gay Adonis in Wonderland that so plagues what passes for gay fiction. We are given fairly stock characters -- all suitably white, "gorgeous", and successful -- who have stock careers as actors/businessmen/artists, who are mind-numbingly self-absorbed yet a source of endless fascination for the "Everyman" protagonist, Robbie the carpenter who, mysteriously, finds no gay friends among his co-workers or those with less fashionable lives.

The book is further marred by convenient plot twists that kill off just the right characters, magically distilling the perfect alternative family, complete with the perfect 24-year-old ex-porn star, but "not narcissistic", lover for our wounded hero.

For a novel to be a true chronicle of its time and place, it must have a universality and ring of truth that lift it above modern popular fiction that relies on demographics and flattery to sell books. With WTRE, Currier proves he has the skills, but is too limited by his narrow social outlook and reliance on plot manipulation to realize his goal. A pity.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: Currier is to be commended for attempting to write a literary chronicle of the life of gay men during the AIDS crisis. Unfortunately, he falls headlong into the stereotype of the Urban Gay Adonis in Wonderland that so plagues what passes for gay fiction. We are given fairly stock characters -- all suitably white, "gorgeous", and successful -- who have stock careers as actors/businessmen/artists, who are mind-numbingly self-absorbed yet a source of endless fascination for the "Everyman" protagonist, Robbie the carpenter who, mysteriously, finds no gay friends among his co-workers or those with less fashionable lives.

The book is further marred by convenient plot twists that kill off just the right characters, magically distilling the perfect alternative family, complete with the perfect 24-year-old ex-porn star, but "not narcissistic", lover for our wounded hero.

For a novel to be a true chronicle of its time and place, it must have a universality and ring of truth that lift it above modern popular fiction that relies on demographics and flattery to sell books. With WTRE, Currier proves he has the skills, but is too limited by his narrow social outlook and reliance on plot manipulation to realize his goal. A pity.

Rating:
Summary: a heart rendering treatis on the age of AIDS
Review: I loved this book! epic and breathtaking in scope with an easy relaxed, fluent style; this book takes you on an incredible "gay odyssey" I have never read a novel that so effectively encompasses all aspects of gay life and sensibilities. Sexy, romantic, sad and melancholy; this book takes us on a wonderful journey as we navigate the highs and lows of Robbie, a young gay "everyman". Through his eyes we witness the sexy hedonism of the Manhattan gay scene in the late 70's, the AIDS ravaged Reagan years of the early to mid 80's and the 90's AIDS activism of LA. Effectively incorporating historical fact with fiction, Currier has painted a fascinating portrait of Robbie and his four friends; their loves, losses, achievements and disappointments. Thematically there are many, many important issues relating to gay life and the homosexual identity being addressed here: questions of faith, religion, and spirituality and whether these can apply to a modern gay man. The importance of family; Currier raises the essential question, What constitutes a family? Is family by blood or is true family friendship? Issues regarding contemporary sexual politics are also discussed particularly the politics of AIDS activism and the attitudes that big business and government had towards the disease in the late 80's and early 90's. This is a beautiful, eloquent, sexy and at times a disturbing chronicle of the ravages of AIDS and the impact that the disease has had on a whole generation od gay men. Currier gives us an uncanny insight in to the mind of Robbie never compromising the gritty realism, this novel tells it like it is. I would recommend this novel as essential reading not just for every gay men but for anyone who has ever has been touched by AIDS or who has had to struggle against adversity.

Michael Leonard

Rating:
Summary: A heartfelt and moving story of a gay man coming of age
Review: In beautiful and uncluttered prose, this book manages to tell the very moving story of Robbie Taylor as he arrrives in New York in 1978 and meets the people who will change his life forever. In an almost epic sweep,the author makes the personal historical and the historical personal through the stories that are told in this wonderful book. The novel achieves what many before it have tried as these character's stories become an almost complete compendium of gay life in America in the last twenty years. This is also a stirring tribute to the many who have died of AIDS. At the risk of sounding trite, this book made me laugh and it made me cry, something very few books have ever managed to do - it's full of the stuff of life.  

Rating:
Summary: Great book.
Review: It's really the cumulative impact of the story, rather than the writer's skill, that makes this book worth the effort. By the time I finished it, I really felt the author had provided a well-rounded main character. I give Currier a lot of credit, though, for trying to encapsulate decades of gay life in a single story. Since I am roughly the same age as the protagonist, I found the observations about the changes in gay life over the years to be interesting and (generally) spot on.

Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable story of a gay man's survival.
Review: Modern gay history -- the mores and etiquette of dating, sex, coupledom and love from the late 1970s to the present -- is covered in this compelling, heartfelt first novel from Currier. Robbie Taylor, 19 and gay, arrives in New York City in 1978. Dazzled by his new cultural and sexual opportunities, Robbie, in his explorations of Manhattan and Fire Island, nevertheless longs for a permanent relationship -- "two men bonded by a passion and fidelity and trust for one another." Robbie finds much of what he is looking for in Nathan Solloway, and the two men establish a close circle of friends and a home together just as the grim death toll of the AIDS pandemic begins. Currier tells a moving tale in which, in the face of devastating losses, Robbie and his "stitched-together" family, now in Los Angeles, are able to emerge from grief strengthened by the stories they carry. Currier has created a powerful monument honoring a generation of gay men lost to AIDS and their wounded resilient survivors. Publishers Weekly, October 1998

Rating:
Summary: Enough, already!
Review: This compelling, wonderfully compasionate novel by Jameson Currier is a must for anyone attempting to understand the heart and soul of love, loss and recovery in the gay community. Never before have I had the pleasure of becoming so intimately involved with a writers characters that I actually wept -- tears of grief, frustration, anger and finally peace and joy. So closely based upon fact, this book is one you simply cannot read without becoming a better person. I highly recommend it if you dare to touch your own soul and connect with the lives of others.